中文摘要：

信息降格说认为,感觉功能老化使认知系统难以获得良好的信息输入,并必须牺牲有限的认知资源获得更好的刺激信息,使能用于认知加工的资源不足,造成认知老化。为探讨感觉功能对基本心理能力老化的作用,该研究采用2（年龄组：年轻、老年组）×4（视知觉压力水平：高、中、低、无噪音）的混合设计,考察年轻、老年组在相同视知觉压力下基本心理能力的年龄差异。结果发现和无噪音条件相比,相同视知觉压力下基本心理能力（数字能力、归纳推理能力）的年龄差异减小,甚至消失,一定程度上支持信息降格说。视觉功能衰退可能是影响基本心理能力老化的重要因素,但这种作用受认知资源的调节。

英文摘要：

Sensory function is considered a basic resource for the aging of cognition. According to the information- degradation hypothesis （Schneider ＆ Pichora-Fuller, 2000）, the decline of sensory function reduces the input of peripheral stimulating information to the central neural system of older adults, and so more attention resources are demanded to process the limited quality sensory information. With the result of fewer resources being left for cognitive processing, older adults have worse cognitive performance than younger adults. The present study adopted a 2 （age： old and young） × 4 （visual perceptual stress： high, medium, low, no-noise） mixed design, with age as a between-subject variable and visual perceptual stress as a within-subject variable, to examine the role of visual function on cognitive aging. Three primary mental abilities （PMA）, spatial orientation ability, numerical ability and inductive reasoning ability, were used as the indexes of cognitive functions. All cognitive tests were displayed under four different levels of visual perceptual stress by standardized programs on the computer. The visual perceptual stress was created by covering stimuli with Gaussian noise. Notably, the visual perceptual stress of each subject was determined by the condition of each individual. Therefore, all participants undertook equal visual perceptual stress towards task-related stimuli in each stress condition. It was expected that the age-related differences would decrease significantly or disappear completely when the older and younger participants undertook the same level of visual perceptual press. Thirty-three younger adults （aged 18 to 33 years old） and thirty-one older adults （aged 62 to 87 years old） were recruited. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA analysis showed that： 1. The performance of the younger group for spatial orientation ability was significantly worse in the high visual perceptual stress condition （F（1,60） = 5.02, p 〈 0.05）, while no significantly differe